Red terror of 1920s

[davlet]

I thought I would start this thread to counter the endless delusional dreams coming from our communist friends on this board.

Here we go, following is a summary of the page which you can read in full at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/econo...seum/his1g.htm

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[...]Immediately after they seized power, [...] Bolsheviks inaugurated [...] economic decrees and policies (which) proved to be disastrous, resulting in a horrific famine, depopulation of the cities, and an enormous decline in living standards.

[...]The primary features of War Communism were: [*]Uncontrolled inflationary printing press finance, ultimately leading to hyperinflation and nationwide reversion to barter [*]Near universal nationalization of manufacturing; widespread nationalization of retailing [*]Stringent price controls upon and forced requisitioning of agricultural products; state monopoly on grain purchases [*]Forced labor for civilians as well as the military

[...]The Bolsheviks' forced labor policies gave new life to the concept of irony. The men who had proclaimed themselves liberators of the workers and denounced the exploitation of labor suddenly discovered the joys of serfdom.[...]By late 1918, it became common practice for the Bolshevik authorities to [...] to announce that workers and technical specialists in a specified branch of the economy were "mobilized for military service" and subject to court- martial: those leaving jobs to which they had been assigned were treated as deserters...

[...](Party intellectuals proclaimed) "Compulsory labour under capitalism, wrote Bukharin, was quite the reverse of compulsory labour under the dictatorship of the proletariat: the first was 'the enslavement of the working class,' the second the 'self- organization of the working class'"(!)

[...]As the economy deteriorated, the Cheka ["Extraordinary Comisssion", Federal Police]waxed ever fatter. After an July 1918 revolt by SRs (i.e., members of Socialist Revolutionaries' Party -- DP), the Cheka turned its guns on fellow socialists, executing 350 captured SR rebels. One month later, the SR Fanya Kaplan nearly succeeded in assassinating Lenin. Her noble effort unfortunately gave the Cheka the excuse to initiate the Red Terror, i.e., mass executions of people based not upon their actions but their class origins and beliefs [...]Five hundred hostages were shot in reprisal in Petrograd alone by order of Zinoviev, the head of the local soviet. On September 5, the people's commissars officially legalized the red terror..."

[...]From then on the Cheka's executions never ceased. The exact number murdered is usually estimated at between 100,000 and 500,000. [...] (Cheka) also pioneered the development of the modern slave labor (or "concentration") camp. Inmates were generally frankly treated as government-owned slaves, and used for the most demanding sorts of work - such as digging arctic canals - while receiving pitifully small rations [...] The number of people in these camps according to Pipes was about 50,000 prisoners in 1920 and 70,000 in 1923; many of these did not survive the inhuman conditions.

[...]The mildest manifestation of the Red Terror was the official policy excluding "class enemies" entirely from the wartime rationing system; i.e., legally, it was often impossible for disfavored groups to even purchase food. As Landauer simply puts it: "As a consequence, the average "bourgeois" had only the choice between death and illegal activities."


[...]the greatest crime committed by Lenin's regime was the civil war the Soviet government waged against the peasantry, and the famine this war precipitated. [...] (Lenin and his followers) despised the peasants as ignorant "petty bourgeoisie" who stood in the way of collectivized agriculture. With one hand Lenin's regime legally recognized the peasants' land seizures, but with the other hand it demanded food at ever more unreasonable terms.[...]The consequences were a perfect illustration of the principles of "bourgeois" economics: with ever stricter price controls, peasants opted not to sell their grain to the cities.[...]Rather than repeal its price controls, the Bolshevik regime scapegoated black marketeers and speculators, unleashing the Cheka upon them with orders to administer summary executions.

[...]So Lenin's government advanced to the next stage: sending the Cheka and the Red Army to seize grain directly from the peasant [...] rich and poor alike found themselves staring down the muzzles of the Cheka's guns. Once again, the resort to ever greater brutality did not bring the desired results. Minimal food was collected, and the peasants went into open revolt. Lenin [...] could not control his hatred of the resisting peasants. [...] By most estimates several hundred thousand peasants were killed as a result of this so-called "Bread War" - as usual, the Red Army and the Cheka executed not only captured rebels, but often families, friends, or entire villages associated, however vaguely, with counter-revolution.


[...]When the perverse incentives of price controls and expropriation were mixed with a drought, the result was one of the great disasters of the century: the Russian famine of 1921. Official Soviet reports admitted that fully 30 million Soviet citizens were in danger of death by starvation [...] (while) the areas under White control had actually built up a food surplus. [...]Low estimates on the deaths from this famine are about 3 million; high estimates go up to 10 million .

[...] famine was largely man-made, the result of draconian price controls and requisitioning. Most of the evidence is that Lenin and his associates knew the probable results of their agricultural policies, but were willing to take the risk: according to Pipes, Lenin repeatedly said that he would sooner the whole nation die of hunger than allow free trade in grain. In short, Lenin and his comrades knew with substantial certainty that their policies would cause widespread death from starvation. Under any sensible definition of murder, ****** this makes Lenin the murderer of millions. *****

[titoman]

The case is that Bolsheviks wanted to defend the gains October revolution...

If you want to have a nice discussion about that I suggest you read this article for start before we are having the discussion...

http://www.marxist.com/russiabook/part1.html

[titoman]

It would be also good to read a book History of Bolshevism, which is the most unbiased book of bolshevism I have ever read.

[Traper]

Originally posted by titoman
The case is that Bolsheviks wanted to defend the gains October revolution...

At any price?

[titoman]

Originally posted by Traper

At any price?

Ok, I will put it this way. 8 millions (only Bolshevik party) + peasantry and military (Do not know exact number of those but was huge) wanted to defend the gains of revolution, then most of others joined, some not...